PS Vita Information

Wednesday, February 28, 2018

Wow, this is a change of pace from Hopoo. We've gone from zipping about in wide open alien tundra to the cramped quarters of undead zombies who need to get punted firmly into the afterlife. That makes this a very different game for anyone hoping for something similar to Risk of Rain.

But that's a good thing, just because it borrows from the same minimalist pixel style, doesn't mean we need the same game. Also fairly minimal is your life, even as a reaper of souls. Just the one hit and you are done for. That's why some planning, luck and quick reactions are required, or, at a push, there's lots of furniture to take cover behind.

Each house, disco or den of zombies, vampires, skeletons and other assorted undead is broken down into rooms, some dark, some lit, others with deadhead security cameras. Some have vents you can smoke through to move around, while you can turn lights on or off. Adding to the spooky atmosphere is a great soundtrack that varies between lounge lizard and gothic gloom.

Aiming with the left trigger held down and firing with the right means you can shoot out lights, aim upstairs at targets and so on. In some places, there are extra objectives such as burning drugs, collecting items, while some trophies require using certain tactics. Distractions include microwaves that go "ping," knocking at doors and a few more to help set traps.

The trick is to sneak around as much as you can, throwing knives is a stealthy kill option, and take the creatures out room by room, without alerting the others. If you do make too much noise-of-death-happening, then others will come running and you either need to have enough ammo to cope, or somewhere good to hide.

Luck comes in at that point, sometimes the enemies will trap you leaving you to go out in a blaze of glory, stabbing futilely with a blade, or you restart and try again. Sometimes you'll find a cassette that helps explain the tale, with a light yet effective backdrop to your nocturnal activities.

For each level you complete, there's a reward in souls, which you can trade with a dodgy geezer down at the docks for better weapons. Handily, you can change your load-out from your collection in the boot of your car at the start of each mission, giving you some leeway in tactics. If you're crap at a level, then bad luck - all you can do is try different weapons and tactics until something works.

Packed with cunning puzzles and new threats or traps for each chapter of the story, this is a tight and focused puzzle/blaster that continues Hopoo's run of fine form. Sure, its frustrating when you have to shoot, close door, pick up other gun, open door, shoot, vanish into vent in about one second, but these are the kind of hoops soul reapers have to jump through.

We've all known the pickings are getting pretty slim for Vita owners subscribing to PlayStation Plus. Now Sony is putting us out of our misery with a one-year alarm call for the end of games on the service. Running from November 2012, when it landed in a blaze of glory with Uncharted and Gravity Rush to March 2019 isn't a bad innings.

Following the likes of PlayStation Now and PlayStation Minis to the grave, announcing March's PS+ games, the new PS blog post has a beginning-of-the-end postscript:

We also have an important service update to share. Starting next year on 8th March 2019, the PS Plus monthly games line-up will focus on PS4 titles and no longer include PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Vita titles.

That won’t affect any games already downloaded prior to 8th March 2019. Those games will still be part of your PS Plus games library as long as you remain a member. So its pretty much time to get a PS4 or a PS4 Portable if Sony ever announces such a device.

For reference, this month's Vita games are Claire: Extended Cut and Bombing Busters (both for PS Vita and PS4), showing just how close to the bottom of the barrel we are. Claire is pretty good, but BB isn't.

Hopefully, Sony will try to go out on a high with a few remaining high profile games to tempt people.

Yes, its small change and still well down on last year, but the Vita continues to tick upward in sales in Japan. That's according to the latest Media Create data where it sold 5.017 last week. The longer it stays around this level, the longer Sony will have to make the damn console and developers will keep popping out the usual fare. And perhaps taking on a few more risks or bringing over western indie imports to see what sticks.

On the software side, Project Tristars sneaks in at No. 16 with 4,300 sales but mobile port Haruka Ultimate does even better, in at No. 10 with 8,800 sales.

Tuesday, February 27, 2018

The Coma: Recut from Devespresso is a 2D horror adventure that has popped up on Signature Edition's store with a nothing but a 2018 release date. Originally a 2017 PC release, in this South Korean game, you must evade a relentless killer at school and survive long enough to uncover the big mystery.

Following the likes of Home, Coma is a survival-horror where as dopey student Youngho, you're trapped in the school halls, but far from alone. After drifting asleep during an exam he wakes at night, pursued by a psychotic killer. With lots of spooky lighting and chase scenes, the next door you open could be your last!

Friday, February 23, 2018

Its the weekend, so get grooving to the latest Persona 3: Dancing Moon Night trailers, showing off Aigis, with Elizabeth welcoming us to the Dancing Zone in the second clip. Three months to go until the Japanese launch!

Thursday, February 22, 2018

Thank heavens the endless parade of character stills is over! Here's a trailer showing off those same stills with some moving Japanese text! Yes, I know its hard to hype up a visual novel, but Idea Factory is really stretching this out. The game is out mid-March and I really want to try it, but don't need every simpering smile or raised-eyebrow of each character rammed in my face!

The PS Vita is six years old now, making it a relic in technology terms, arriving around the same time as the iPhone 4S. But gamers still love it and are snapping Japanese imports or second-hand western models up, long since Sony stopped distributing them! Some are new to the world of Vita, others are on their second or third trip back to Vita Island, for some reason people just can't stay away!

Apart from that trail of end-of-life-affirming news, Sony won't talk about the Vita, bar the very rare game post on the PlayStation blog, so many people might think it is officially dead. That's despite a vibrant little developer and a growing dedicated fan base. The Vita might not be for everyone, but it has the best gaming community since the Dreamcast. And it annoys the hell out of Sony every time someone buys one!

Of course, you could get a Nintendo Switch with a stackful of games announced every day for it, but everyone has one of them, (ahem!) Rather than take the word of a true-believer like me, voice-of-reason Erica Griffin does a great job explaining why you should buy one!

If you're searching for a new Vita, either as an indie hit machine, retro box, or for Remote Play then you can still find them on eBay, from Amazon third-party sellers, and second-hand stores. The good news is there are plenty of all models still available, the bad news is the price is going up as they become a collector's item.OLED or LCD Since 2014, all Vita "slim" models have had an LCD display, if you can find an original 1000-class model new, then that has a blacker, brighter OLD screen with more pop, but is unusable in bright daylight. But the overall difference isn't a massive one. The newer models also have better battery life, standard USB charging port and 1GB of memory built in.

Vita Memory Cards

Despite their outrageous pricing, Sony has never noticeably cut the cost of memory cards for the Vita. The rule is to buy the biggest you can afford, a 32-GB model will store plenty of games (I have around 50 on mine). The 64-GB models are Japanese imports as they were never officially released here, there are more reports of those corrupting than smaller versions, but that's likely as people are more upset about the effort to rebuild their collection.

Grips and Docks

The Vita has a range of cases from hard plastic to canvas. There are also some grips available that can make it more comfortable to use, and add triggers to save tapping the rear screen on some games, definitely easier for PS4 Remote Play. They range from dirt cheap to modestly priced, just remember to check they are for your model of Vita - some generic types cater for both.

My launch day model has survived a few drops and bumps, but you definitely need a comfy case for road trips and travel, also somewhere to keep game cards is very handy to save rooting through your game cases.

Games and Content

I won't tell you what games to buy, there probably over 1,100 games that play on the Vita. From PS one (100+), PlayStation Portable (250+) and Vita (750+) games available, depending on your region. Since it doesn't get the latest big-name games, you can spend plenty of time diving in and out of the back catalogue, with many games available cheap in retail and PSN sales.

When it comes to buying for children, the many LEGO games are perfect choices, as are Minecraft and Dragon Quest Builders for keeping them occupied with fun construction and adventuring. Ambient arcade games like Flower and Entwined also have appeal, while the likes of Fez, Lumo and Thomas Was Alone will appeal to older children.

Check my reviews to find games that match your interests. Physical copies could well increase in value over time, and will boost the value of your Vita collection if you ever decide to sell it. Buy those if possible, especially if they are Limited Run, EastAsiaSoft or other collector's titles with small production runs. Going physical also saves you messing about with lots of expensive memory cards as that collection grows.

The Vita is still very much a viable proposition for a gaming fan who's not just after the latest Call of Duty. With a gold mine of quality titles, it has attracted most of the best PC indies from Papers, Please and Spelunky with Stardew Valley and others on the way. Note, the Vita PSN store seems to be built on the same back-end technology as the PS4's, so Sony is unlikely to ever close it outright, like it did with the PSP store (and even that is still accessible via PC).

Note, this is an update on a 2016 piece, if you think it seems familiar.

Wednesday, February 21, 2018

The latest Media Create chart shows that Vita games can still sell. Idolish 7 Twelve Fantasia is the highest entry at No. 4 selling 21,500 which is a very good haul. The Vita version of Secret of Mana 2 manages almost 18K sales at No. 7. That's well below the PS4 version which saw almost double the sales at No. 2.

However, Virtual On vs A Certain Magical Index bombed out, selling only 9,200 on Vita for No. 16, again with half the sales of the PS4 version, which seems to be a trend. Those games help Vita sales rise to just under 5,000 units for the week,

Out this week is Your Four Knight Princesses Training Story from Nippon Ichi, which looks lively enough to generate some interest and is a three-way battle between Vita, Switch and PS4.

Monday, February 19, 2018

Didn't spot this in the flood of character trailers released at the end of last week, but here's a good look at the gameplay of Bandai's Super Robot Wars X, in among lots of characters and cutscenes. Apart from another Gundam titles, is this Bandai's last game for the Vita? The game is out at the end of March, so it won't take long to find out.

Wow, still a lot of interest in this series, the video has picked up over 150,000 views in 12 hours!

It seems like more publishers are just throwing games out at the Vita with no effort at news or promotion. Dead Ahead: Zombie Warfare is one of rash of titles suddenly getting trophy listings pretty much out of nowhere, and there's no sign of Russian dev Mobirate even acknowledging its existence (TBF, their social media hasn't updated since 2015/2017).

As a mobile game, we may be fearing the worst, but Dead Ahead: Zombie Warfare is pretty well rated and looks like fun, with distinctive characters and lots of weapons and skills. Among the expected games, other random titles like One Eyed Kutkh from Baba Yaga, and Deep Ones are popping up. A shame its more or less impossible to do any proper coverage, beyond putting up the original trailer, but do keep an eye out and let us know if you try these games out.

UPDATE: the game is now live on PSN for £15.99 with a stack of extra purchases likely to put quite a few people off.

Friday, February 16, 2018

After the recent teasing, here's a proper look at NIS's Liar Princess and the Blind Prince in action. Just your typical fairy tale of a pointy-toothed princess, who's actually a wolf, who takes the job of guide a blind price through a prickly and dangerous wood.

To what purpose will probably be revealed only by playing the game, and what's her true nature? Still hoping on a western release, even though NISA never mentioned the game during its recent press event.

Hey, Japanese publishers, sort your video scheduling out, six in one batch? That's just dumb, anyway, here are the latest character clips from Fate Extella Link, the Persona Dancing games and Virtual On which I think is now out over there.

Thursday, February 15, 2018

After weeks of likely lads, it looks like Idea Factory is scraping the bottom of the barrel when it comes to love interest for Hakuoki Edo Blossoms.

First up is Hajime Saito who as the smirk of a convicted fraudster and a turn of phrase that would make Byron vomit a lung.

Or, as the PR blurb puts it: Saito is the quiet, “lone-wolf” who acts as the captain of the Shinsengumi’s 3rd Division. As a man of few words, he finds most conversation meaningless. His seriousness stems from his childhood.

Then there's Keisuke Sanan who's limp hair and weedy glasses scream "punch me in the face!" Apparently, he is logical and reserved (punch me harder!). He is obsessed with discovering an antidote for the Water of Life (and kick me in the groin!), because of his guilt over what he's done to the Fury Corps.

Yes, I'm getting quite bored of the drip-feed of drippy characters, just release the game already!

Wednesday, February 14, 2018

PQube and ixtl are bringing Muv-Luv and Muv-Luv Alternative (Kickstarted to the tune of $2 million back in 2015) to western PS Vita owners in both Physical and Digital forms this summer.

Muv-Luv, which contains both the ‘Muv-Luv Extra' and ‘Muv-Luv Unlimited' storylines, is available on PS3, Xbox and others in Japanese, while Muv-Luv Alternative in the second PS Vita release completes the "trilogy".

Across the series, we follow the exploits of Takeru Shirogane – a young student caught between the affections of his childhood friend and a mysterious heiress – Muv-Luv seems like a simple romantic story.

However, as the Muv-Luv story soon become an epic sci-fi adventure pulling in some of the most exciting elements of the mecha genre, parallel universe and time travel. At over 150 hours play time, Muv-Luv represents one of the true powerhouses of the Visual Novel genre and a story that demands to be experienced.

Vita sales remained surprisingly firm in Japan last week, with sales down just 80ish on a week where PS4 new releases and solid Switch performance dominate the Media Create chart. Related to the Vita, Dragon's Crown Pro entered the chart for PS4 at No. 11, selling 11,200 copies which, with strong original Vita sales might be enough interest for a proper sequel.

In bonus news, Toby Fox's Undertale is going down a storm in Japan, clocking up 100,000 digital sales across PS Vita and PS4 in six months. Search Undertale on Twitter and see the continuing rabid amount of Japanese interest. That means the May physical LE release should get a great response. Also hopefully, Japanese publishers 8-4 will be looking for other western titles it can sell over there.

Over in Famitsu, solid scores all round for a bunch of random-sounding Vita visual novels this week. The Vitamin X release is a 10th anniversary edition, while the others are the usual schoolgirl travails.

Tuesday, February 13, 2018

Half-Minute Hero from Marvelous shook up how RPGs could be played with insane bursts of auto-battling on the PSP. Playing in the same time-juggling ballpark, The Longest Five Minutes takes a skewed approach, pitching you straight into the climactic boss battle with some giant demon taunting you and your crew.

Except Flash's memory has been wiped (is that an IT joke?) leaving his party floundering in the face of their biggest enemy. To get things back on track, Flash has to remember what led up to these epic scenes, which sends us scampering back through time to various adventures where the story starts. All told from a view askew stance, there's of zipping back and forth through time to different places and the many quests that got us here.

In reality, that means lots of pixel-fun light RPG adventuring with short and long quests across a world linked by boats, trains and bridges. The approach means there's no need to care about leveling, up and hitting auto-equip and auto-battle will see you fight quickly and effectively.

Each part of your past has one key objective to meet and a few side quests that you might want to follow up on. In its fast 8-bit style, there's not much to look at, and most characters have a couple of quirky or funny lines to make them worth talking to, but its not exactly a chat-fest.

A texty adventure?

On the plus side, the text is a good size and very readable on the Vita's screen, so kudos to the developers for that. There's also a few pages in the digital manual to cover all the controls, not that there's much to get wrong.

With landscapes and buildings ranging from the modern to classic RPG fodder, the simple pixel design is bright but effective. The pan-pipe led tunes are also charming and expansive, and perhaps the only major annoyance is a lack of signage or detail on the map screen.

The story itself has plenty of humour and little quirks to it, with enemies taking on the form of wherever you happen to be, which is better than generic rats or random creatures that many JRPGs throw at us.

Add in some mini-games and there's a lot to enjoy, but you could easily finish the adventure in under six hours. If you like plain and simple retro adventuring this is a decent effort, but if you a little more dash or verve to your adventuring, then probably better wait for something more menacing.

Also, the price is more expensive than Secret of Mana by £10, also out this week, and Under Night In-Birth, which is a bit of a joke! Something NISA needs to consider with any future releases. For a feature-packed LE, fine but not for a digital release.

Saturday, February 10, 2018

While, as you'd expect, all the great news was for Switch owners from NISA's event overnight, we still get a snippet of news. Already confirmed for a western release The Lost Child, with a new subtitle, Walking Among Gods will be with us this summer.

Another typical Kakokawa RPG title, it features over 50 entities from myths and legends to capture, each with three unique forms to progress through! Over 250 skills to learn and distribute among your party of captured Astrals and massive dungeons with up to 99 floors of deathly dangers to conquer.

Friday, February 9, 2018

The Persona 3/5 sunlight/moonlight/boogie marathon launch tease continues with a couple of new trailers for the latest groove-stars across the double release. Today's batch from Atlus brings us Yukari Takeba for Persona 3: Dancing Moon Night and Persona 5: Dancing Star Night's Ryuji Sakamoto to get you in the mood for a disco weekend.

Persona 4 Dancing All Night was a solid 7/10 in my book, but these are supposed to have more story and better use of the characters, here's hoping!

Continuing the character bios in the run-up to the next month's launch of Idea Factory's Hakuoki: Edo Blossoms, meet Souji Okita and Shinpachi Nagakura.

A wry, quick-witted swordsman who is fiercely dedicated to the Shinsengumi. He travels with Chizuru to reunite with the Shinsengumi after being bedridden with wounds sustained after the Battle of Toba-Fushimi, a battle where the Shinsengumi were forced to retreat from Kyoto to Edo. Okita's tough exterior eventually softens, and his appreciation for a well-lived life becomes more apparent.

Brash, hot-headed, and impulsive. Shinpachi Nagakura (on the left) is a musclehead more dedicated to his principles, rather than his loyalty to the Shinsengumi. Nagakura is known to hang out with Sanosuke Harada in Shimabara.

Arc System's World End Syndrome has an opening trailer, a particularly artistic affair. The girls of Mihate City are enamoured when a new chap turns up at their school, otherwise still don't know much about the game.

Four Knight Princesses still sounds like a porn film, but here's the latest candidate, Monomaria. The game looking like pretty spot on as an action title but I can do without all the overt characterisation as our heroines blather on in the middle of battle.

And, not that it really looks much different to previous efforts, here's the launch trailer for the latest Jikkyou Powerful Pro Baseball 2018.

Thursday, February 8, 2018

One More Dungeon brings the fun of original Wolfenstein-era gaming to the Vita, and while it's not as good a game as it could be (review), I still like to play it thanks to its random dungeons and healthy difficulty factor.

Eastasiasoft is bringing the Stately Snail game to the physical realm with a 1,000-run limited edition. I'm not sure a plushie snail is really a collectible, but hey the package looks pretty neat! Shipments start in early march for $29.99 and you can register here.

Wednesday, February 7, 2018

Vita sales storm back over the 4K barrier to 4,200 in Japan last week according to Media Create. That's perhaps as there are plenty of games coming soon to tempt buyers, or it could just be another round of updaters, grabbing consoles before they vanish. Either way, there's no Vita games in the chart, although that will change next week.

Its a busy week for releases in Japan with the Vita dominating the top end of latest Famitsu scores, and its great to see Iconoclasts get some coverage among this decent mix of titles arriving in Japan this week or very soon.

Tuesday, February 6, 2018

PQube continue to throw out the news for the latest Under Night brawler, arriving this week on all PlayStation platforms. This week we meet Enkidu, a close to mid-range fighter who doesn't need big combos to deal out some serious damage with slow but hard-hitting attacks.

His game plan mainly revolves around close quarters combat – getting in and pressuring his opponent into the corner. Once he controls the corner, he excels at keeping his foe there and overwhelming them when they have nowhere to go.

First Prohibition is a big punch with multiple follow-ups. The A and B version start with the same initial attack, but if followed-up with A, Enkidu will execute a series of punches leading to a palm strike that leaves the opponent grounded. If followed-up with B, he will execute a sweep and a big uppercut that launches the opponent. The EX version is one big punch that sends the opponent flying across the screen. It can lead to a wall-bounce if performed close to the edge of the screen, allowing for follow-up attacks.

Chained Limbs is Enkidu's diagonal attack of choice, both to anti-air and to challenge pressure. This attack launches Enkidu in the air with pair of upkicks. The A and B version both have upper body invincibility, making them the perfect ways of dealing with jumping attacks. The EX version has full invincibility and is a great way of breaking your opponents' pressure. It also causes a wall-bounce, leaving the opponent vulnerable to follow-up attacks.

The 'Wind Blade' is a special move dive kick. Can be cancelled into from air attacks and from Enkidu's Force Function. The A and B version is a standard dive kick, while the EX version does more damage, can be cancelled into from other special moves in addition to the Force Function, and can be comboed off of on the ground afterward.

Idea factory's Hakuoki: Edo Blossoms is just a month from release and we have some fresh screen from the publisher showing off the Demon bad boy Chikage Kazama and a new game feature!

Unlike the other romanceable options in the game, Kazama is the only full-blooded Demon. The leader of one of Japan's oldest Demon clans, he is aloof, cynical, and has nothing but disdain for humanity.

He's drawn to Chizuru because of her Demon blood, and through her begins to soften his views on humanity, but can their relationship last in the face of Japan's changing landscape?

New to Hakuoki: Edo Blossoms is the ability to alleviate characters' pain by offering them blood while they're in their Fury form. Your choices affect their Corruption and can mean the difference between a good ending and a bad ending!

Monday, February 5, 2018

Taking the Risk of Rain all-action approach, and bolting on stealth hybrid gameplay, Deadbolt from Hopoo Games and Code Mystics is coming to Vita in a couple of weeks. It provides another serious challenge as you play a tooled up reaper come to take back the souls of the undead.

While those stripped-back pixels are not much to look at, these guys get gameplay and Risk of Rain is awesome fun, hoping that Deadbolt matches that! A bit more detail on the PS blog.

After the quiet of January, games news is exploding left, right and centre. Except for the Vita that is, with even supportive third-parties been pretty quiet, thank heaven for the indies. However, it ain't dead yet and NIS Japan has just announced a new game, The Liar Princess and The Blind Prince.

This teaser popped out a couple of weeks ago, almost unnoticed, and now we know what it is.

The Liar Princess and The Blind Prince for Vita, PS4 and Switch arriving in May. All we have is a Famitsu mini-scan at the moment, with the mag out tomorrow, but there should be a video up soon. It seems to be borrowing a little from NIS' Rose in the Twilight game from a couple of years back.

Friday, February 2, 2018

Was going to chuck this in the Friday video compilation, but hey, its Persona! Check out the latest info on Persona 3 Dancing Moon Night and Persona 5 Dancing Star Night from the series' very own top salesman, Tanaka!

Presumably, most Japanese fans will go for the double pack, aka the Persona Dancing Deluxe Twin Plus Pack for PS Vita, with its exclusive costumes. The games are coming west but no news on a release date or physical.

With Kaz Hirai moving upstairs the Chairman of Sony, Kenichiro Yoshida is the new CEO, taking over now the company is basking in healthy profits. He doesn't exactly look like a barrel of laughs, but is hot on business strategy so he could do some moving and shaking when it comes to portable, but probably not.

For the end of 2017, Sony's operating profit of was 350.8 billion yen from 2.7 trillion yen in revenue, with a net profit of 295.9 billion yen. Predictions are for even bigger profits in 2018! Read the whole exciting PDF here. PlayStation 4 sales (under Game and Network Services) helped lead the way, but even Sony movie studios managed to make some cash!

Now the company isn't bleeding money, it needs to fill the gap between PS4 and PS5, and his thinking will be guided by the success of the Switch, but its hard to see Sony turning around on the whole Vita issue having been so dogmatic about it for four years.

That makes a hybrid PS5 more likely, but Sony could have already missed the boat on that, depending on how advanced plans are.

Thursday, February 1, 2018

Hope you like violence! Enjoy three minutes of Marvelous' Fate Extella Link in action, with a glimpse of multiplayer and other goodies. Then we have another three minutes of Titan hacking action from Tecmo. Guess these are all the PS4 versions in action. Vita clips of AoT were shown last week.